A Cellar for Any Situation, Any Price

You don’t need me to remind you the holidays are here (as if you could forget). While it’s easy to bemoan the crass commercialization and artifice, it’s also easy to overlook the opportunities for all sorts of gatherings and the real joys that come with them. Let’s just stipulate that in the hierarchy of pleasures, people come first. Now that we agree on that, good food and drink can help make any party better. Here are some suggestions for several possible types of gatherings. The suggestions are not rigid: if you see something you like better in another, go for it. Above all, these should be gifts to yourself.

Romantic for Two

“Love is all around,” as they sing in “Love, Actually,” one of my favorite Christmas movies (another is “The Ref,” not nearly so sentimental). Why not take advantage with a special dinner for two? Whatever menu you decide, sparkling wine to start is a must. You could drink it throughout the meal, or switch to red or white, or both. Don’t worry about finishing, just seal and pop the extras in the fridge. If all goes well, you may want to continue the celebration the day after.

SPARKLING INEXPENSIVEFrance is awash in good sparkling wine, whether from Vouvray, Burgundy or Alsace. Émotion, a Crémant d’Alsace from Domaine Agapé, is about $20.

MIDRANGE I love the lithe, graceful nerello mascaleses from Mount Etna in Sicily. Calabretta, Terre Nere, Benanti are all around $30.

SPLURGE This is the place for Burgundy or Barolo with a few years of age. For Burgundies, look for good premier crus from 2000, 2001 or 2006. For Barolo, look for ’99, ’98 and, if you’re lucky, ’95 or ’93.

Nuclear Family

Usually, the kids are in school or away at college and you’re working and lucky if you can get something hot and nutritious on the table for the 20 minutes that people will hold still. Now it slows down, the perfect opportunity to take a more rewarding emotionally and culinary approach to dinner. Fine wine for the grown-ups, a taste for the kids, hot mulled cider for afterward.

GEEKY Old-school white Rioja. The ’98 reserva Viña Tondonia from Lopéz de Heredia is about $40.

RED INEXPENSIVE Pleasantly bitter Dolcettos from the Piedmont region of Italy. Anna-Maria Abbona or Luigi Einaudi are about $20.

MIDRANGE A spicy Montsant from Celler de Capçanes for about $25, or an earthy St.-Joseph from Domaine Faury, about $30.

SPLURGE Classic Napa cabernets with a little age, like Cathy Corison or Mayacamas, around $100.

GEEKY In Côt We Trust is Puzelat-Bonhomme’s indefatigable take on Loire malbec, $20.

Wine Friends

You’ve got your dedicated wine friends, for whom no gathering is complete if not centered around a few interesting bottles. Perhaps you’ve heard about a new generation of winemakers in California who are conscientiously working to extend the state’s bandwidth, making wines that aim more for subtlety and finesse than power and bountiful fruit. How about a New California party? You could supplement with a gift of “The New California Wine,” Jon Bonné’s fine new book that explores the phenomenon. Forget the Geeky category; it all qualifies.

Why not? You owe enough invitations. Get them all out of the way at once. It’s also a great opportunity for large-scale cooking, like a big pot of chili or stew, a choucroute garni, a ham, a pork or lamb roast. When’s the last time you made prime rib? This artifact of 1950s dining is due for a reimagined comeback (you heard it here first). Sorry, crowd, the Splurge category does not exist for you.

WHITE INEXPENSIVE Mâcon-Villages remains a crisp, all-purpose refresher for $10 to $15 from producers like Vrac or Maison Champy.

MIDRANGE Sancerre is the proverbial crowd-pleaser. Lucien Crochet, about $25.

RED INEXPENSIVE I’ve been on a Chianti jag; Selvapiana Chianti Rùfina 2010 is $15 or so.

MIDRANGE Copain Tous Ensemble syrah is a very good entry-level wine, $20 to $25.

GEEKY If you can find reds from Dirty & Rowdy or La Clarine Farm in California, they are joyous wines for $20 to $40.

Football Takeout

Sometimes you and your pals just want to kick back. You don’t want to cook, but you can’t bear the thought of junk food and bad beer. Takeout is not an abdication of entertaining responsibility, provided you have options that rise above the mundane. Why not?

SICHUAN A good Pilsner beer like Victory, Tröegs or Brooklyn; or if you want to go geeky, Manzanilla sherry.

CANTONESE Riesling! Try Ravines dry riesling from the Finger Lakes for about $15 or a Hermann J. Wiemer semi-dry riesling, also about $15.

PIZZA Champagne, believe it or not, like Billecart-Salmon for about $40, or an excellent Lambrusco, like a Saetti Salamino di Santa Croce for about $18.

INDIAN Good cider, like Cidre Bouché from E. Dupont in Normandy, under $10.

Solo

For reasons of travel, bad blood or simple inclination, many people end up alone for some or all of the holidays. This can easily justify a visit from the Grand Rationalizer, who will make the case for the quart of ice cream, just this once. But even better is the therapeutic salve of treating oneself well, preparing a favorite dish and accompanying it with just the right wine. I know, I know: wine is to be shared and so on. Well, why deprive solo diners? Nothing wrong with enjoying some wine, as long as it’s for pleasure and not to drown one’s sorrows. Drink something terrific.

WHITE MIDRANGE Will Chablis always be our little secret? A good 2010 premier cru from Domaine William Fevre is around $30.